President Barack Obama, announcing a reduction of 33,000 troops in Afghanistan by September 2012, said it was “time to focus on nation-building at home” and offered a “centered course” for U.S. military engagement that he said would be rooted in pragmatism.
In a nationally televised speech, Obama sought to balance the demands of the military, which wanted to avoid a rapid withdrawal, and the sentiments of many Americans, who polls show think the war is no longer worth waging.
“We are starting this drawdown from a position of strength,” Obama said last night in the East Room of the White House. “The tide of war is receding.”
Obama’s plan would withdraw 10,000 troops before the end of this year and an additional 23,000 -- the remainder of last year’s troop surge -- as the 2012 presidential election campaign kicks into high gear.
The president in 2009 ordered deployment of the additional forces to quell a growing Taliban insurgency, and he said last night that the goals set out then largely have been accomplished. Even with the withdrawals, the U.S. will have roughly 68,000 troops in Afghanistan, about twice as many as were there when Obama was elected in 2008. Also in the country are more than 40,000 personnel from 48 other nations, which are making plans to pull back as well.
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